Category Archives: Latin America

General T&T, International, Latin America, Law, Racism Watch, USA, Venezuela

We Must Control Our Destiny

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By Raffique Shah
November 30, 2020

Raffique ShahIf there is not now on our statute books a law that empowers us to deny entry into Trinidad and Tobago to any alien, man woman or child, more so persons seeking to enter our territory illegally, then Government must move post-haste to rectify such anomaly that foreigners are using to breach our borders. Further, if some government in the past compromised this inalienable right that every sovereign state in the world must surely enjoy by signing on to some nebulous convention that purports to promote human rights, then unshackle us, damn it if we are deemed inhumane, sub-human or maybe animals.
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General T&T, International, Latin America, USA, Venezuela

The U.S. Has Venezuela in Its Crosshairs

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It is plain as day that the United States wants to overthrow the government in Venezuela

US President Donald Trump (L) and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (R) (Wikipedia)
US President Donald Trump (L) and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (R) (Wikipedia)

By Vijay Prashad
January 17, 2019 – venezuelanalysis.com

Last Thursday—on January 10—Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as president of Venezuela. “I tell the people,” Maduro said, “this presidential sash is yours. The power of this sash is yours. It does not belong to the oligarchy or to imperialism. It belongs to the sovereign people of Venezuela.”

These two terms—oligarchy and imperialism—define the problems faced by Maduro’s new government.
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Crime in T&T, Drug Trade, General T&T, International, Latin America, Media, USA

Drugs Don’t Kill People, Neoliberalism Kills People

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By Brad Blankenship
November 22, 2017 – telesurtv.net

DrugsOpioids, a class of drugs chemically similar to the painkiller morphine, have been sweeping across North America since the late 1990s into the first two decades of the 2000s. These powerful sedative drugs, which include prescription painkillers like oxycodone and powerful street drugs such as heroin, are extremely deadly because their depressant effects can stop a user from breathing. Because of their widespread and ever-increasing use, drug overdose deaths “are the leading cause of injury death in the United States,” according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
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General T&T, International, Latin America, Media, Opposition Party, People's Partnership, PNM, Politics, UNC, Venezuela

Bad Deal: Ramnarine blamed for messing up energy negotiations

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By Renuka Singh
September 29, 2013 – guardian.co.tt

Kevin RamnarineEnergy Minister Kevin Ramnarine has distanced himself from the negotiation process that allegedly led to an almost ten per cent drop in local voting rights over the cross-border Loran/Manatee bloc. This move comes on the heels of scathing criticism that the minister had mucked up decade-long bilateral talks between Venezuela and Trinidad that, if negotiated properly, could have boosted local energy reserves and made allowances for Venezuelan pipelines to pass through the local refinery.
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Hindu, ILP, Latin America, PSC, Racism Watch, UNC

Irresponsible!

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Newsday’s Editorial
August 25, 2013 – newsday.co.tt

Raffique ShahIT was the height of irresponsibility for OWTU leader, Ancel Roget, to be among a group of masked, black-clad protesters participating in an illegal demonstration at the Halls of Justice on Wednesday, that had panicked Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mervyn Richardson, into fearing the makings of another attempted coup.

As a seasoned leader of one of the country’s most prominent trade unions, Roget must have known that the protest was a violation of several aspects of the law, both statutory law and common law.
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CARICOM, General T&T, International, Latin America, Politics, Venezuela

Chavez – Catalyst for Change

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By Raffique Shah
March 09, 2013

Raffique ShahHUGO Chavez cast a giant shadow over the Western Hemisphere during his relatively short life. Few world leaders can claim to have influenced the course of history and geopolitics the way he did. For more than half-a-century, visionaries formulated and articulated ideas for the creation of a new power centre that resided outside of North America and Europe. Chavez transformed those dreams into reality, however limited, and upon his untimely death he left behind the legacy of a new world order that seems set to redefine Latin America and influence global affairs in the 21st Century.
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General T&T, International, Latin America, Passed on, Venezuela

Venezuela: Adiós Presidente

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By Clifton Ross
March 8th 2013 – Upside Down World

Mourners pay their respects to Hugo Chávez (Efrain Gonzalez / Prensa Miraflores)
Mourners pay their respects to Hugo Chávez (Efrain Gonzalez / Prensa Miraflores)
It may be difficult for North Americans to grasp the loss Venezuelans are feeling over the death of President Hugo Chávez since we have no comparable experience in our entire history. I called a friend in Venezuela today to check in with her and find out how she was doing the day after Chávez’s death. She was obviously shaken. “It’s a blow (golpe) and you feel it everywhere. After all, Chávez is a man we’ve lived with for the past fourteen years.”

Chávez, whatever one may think of him or how his legacy will be judged, was a warm, charismatic, down-to-earth, entertaining, larger-than-life figure, part politician, part entertainer. He was from the llano, the land of the cowboys and that was so much of his appeal. When he looked into the camera on his weekly, Alo Presidente, there was a sense of physical contact with him among viewers. I know my friend Juan seemed to feel Chávez was there with us on those Sunday mornings as he laughed with him and even hummed along when Chávez sang.
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Caribbean, General T&T, International, Latin America, Politics, Venezuela

The Life and Legacy of Hugo Chávez

By Gregory Wilpert
March 7th 2013 – The Real News

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, or Comandante Chávez, as he was affectionately known by his supporters and followers, passed away on March 5, at 4:25 p.m. local time, following a 21-month battle against cancer.

When he died, at 58 years of age, he had become one of Venezuela’s and perhaps even the world’s most important contemporary leaders, having launched what he and his movement called the “Bolivarian Revolution,” named after Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century independence hero who had liberated Venezuela and four other countries from Spanish colonial rule. Chávez was a devotee of Simón Bolívar, and his vice president, Nicolás Maduro, recently referred to Chávez as “the new liberator of the 21st century.” Whether this is a fair assessment only history will tell, but what is certain is that Chávez changed the face of Venezuela during his 14 years as president.
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General T&T, International, Latin America, Media, Passed on, Venezuela

What kind of monster has priorities like this? Placing healthcare, education and nutrition before skyscrapers!

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Hugo Chavez at The Fifth Summit of the Americas 2009 held in Trinidad and Tobago

Below is the actual view of Pamela Sampson, writer for the Associated Press:
Little Reaction In Oil Market To Chavez Death (March 05, 2013)
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173521347

Chavez invested Venezuela’s oil wealth into social programs including state-run food markets, cash benefits for poor families, free health clinics and education programs. But those gains were meager compared with the spectacular construction projects that oil riches spurred in glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world’s tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi.

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